CRUDE Santa

I was raised in a small West Texas town where the school mascot is a roughneck. Growing up with a roughneck as the town symbol, how could I not spend most of my adult life working in the petroleum industry? I started working in the oilfields age 16. In Texas, you had to be 17 with a signed minors release from your parents, but my parents were glad to keep me working. I had been working since my first job working on a commercial elephant garlic farm at age 12. By the time I reached 16, I had enough work experience to prove I knew how to hold my own on a work crew. Anybody whose parents survived the great depression can attest to the fact that their children learn the value of a solid work ethic.